Czech Republic and Slovakia have lowest income inequality in the EU

Brno, Czech Republic – The EU Commission recently published its annual European Semester reports, a yearly assessment of the social and economic situation of all member states. According to its findings, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have the two lowest income inequality rates in the EU.

According to the European Commission report, the income of the richest 20% people in the Czech Republic is 3.4 times higher than the income of the poorest 20% of the population. The ratio has remained roughly at the same level throughout the last decade. Slovakia reported the second lowest ratio of income inequality in Europe (3.5), tied with Slovenia and Finland.

Both Poland (4.6) and Hungary (4.3) also remain below the European average.

At the EU level, the richest 20% earned on average 5.1 times more than the poorest 20% of the population. At the opposite end of the scale, the most significant income inequality can be found in Bulgaria (ratio of 8.2), Lithuania (7.1), Romania (7), Spain and Greece (both 6.6), according to EU data.

The Czech Republic also stands out as having the lowest proportion of people threatened by poverty and social exclusion (12.2%, ten percentage points lower than the EU average): in 2017, around 1.2 million people were still considered at risk of poverty or social exclusion, 300.000 less than ten years ago.

Slovakia also performed well in that category, with 16.3% of the population (more than 850.000 people) considered at risk of poverty or social exclusion, the third lowest ratio in the EU. But some parts of the population are more vulnerable than others, as “close to 200.000 Roma people live in marginalised communities often without access to basic infrastructure and public services”, the European Commission points out.